Are you really gonna give Vapors and DoS a four or a five star rating?
That's like saying they are as good as Shezza's Life in Konoha's ANBU or Inert's Patriot's Dawn.

 

Does it look like I'm giving them a four or five star rating?

I'm saying these fics are the first SI fics that are remotely close to the level which we consider to be "great fics", aka 4 and 5 stars.

EDIT: And as Ched said, DoS would get at least a 4/5 from me so it does qualify.

 

I'd say Vapors scrapes by and manage to just snag a 4, DoS being a solid 4 (it actually is in the Library with 4 stars after 50 votes). Not sure that is the same thing as saying they are "as good" as some of the standouts from the fandom (I'll point out both stories you mentioned are technically 5's), just an artifact of how vague a five point system is by necessity.

 

I'll admit I'm probably not the best judge for DoS, considering I never read past a particular point. My issues were with Vapors getting a 4 star or higher rating.
That story has just way too many loopholes and steps into way too many pitfalls. I've already discussed some of those issues and while some arguments were made in their defence, I wasn't convinced.
In fact I'm sure one of the advocates of SIs actually said that because of those weaknesses it will probably belong to the Almost Recommended thread rather than the library.

---------- Post automerged at 06:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 AM ----------

So what rating will you give Vapors?

 

Yes, I believe several did.

I am probably the one you are remembering. That was not due to its technical rating though. For all that you were unconvinced, the fact that so many arguments were made is telling in itself.


I did say it "just scraped by" with a 4, a sentiment which is probably more commonly written as "3.5 rounded up". Others might round down to 3 instead, but I think that is about where the story sits. That is why there was so much discussion over it in the first place.


Even rounding up to 4, I still didn't put it up For Review precisely because of the premise. To quote the Almost Recommendable OP:

I'd call this sort of SI-OC, without the fabulous world-building of DoS, to be an "un-DLP" idea. Because it is a weakness.

 

Three stars. The writing is solid enough to stand up and whatever problems it may have with the plot it takes a while to get to them, having time to build up until its momentum and immersion are enough to keep you going even through a host of minor annoyances and plot holes. It does outright break immersion a few times, but I never found it too egregious. Most of the criticisms of it (author Mary-Sueism, takes away too much attention from the "main plot" of Naruto, etc.) come more from looking at the ideas and actions that take place when you aren't actually doing a full read through of it, meaning that the fic itself keeps your attention and its not until you look at the fic outside of actually reading it that they start to nag you.

Solid with some flaws which may or may not be deal-breakers. Pretty much the definition for a 3/5.

 

So in your opinion it is a better than average fic bordering on the good. I myself would call it average. Even I'll admit that while it showed a lot of promise on the character build-up of the SI and when it was doing its own thing, it fell flat when it tries to put its spin on the canon events.

 

Not to be a dick, but that post was made in 2006. DLP has changed a fuck ton since that time and even has a few slash fics in the library.

 

True, we probably shouldn't still copy that OP. Can't say it was ever a hard and fast rule either, since a five-second search turns up a couple slash fics that entered the library as early as 2009 with 3 starred recommendations back in 06.